Inspiration : colour & metal framed chairs.

More inspiration from Elle Decoration (more metal framed chairs, & more bright colour <3).    This time from the January 2015 issue, which featured a small guesthouse in Bethnal Green, designed by the Danish designer Nina Tolstrup & husband Jack Mama of STUDIOMAMA, & some very dashing orange metal framed chairs which grabbed my attention.

I'd just been admiring Pepper's gorgeous orange kitchen for her Fenton Lodge & thought of her when I saw the chairs.

Love the Danish daybed/sofa (which reminds me so much of the 1958 Mattel Modern sofa) & the blue bench/coat rack.

I'd only seen one thing by STUDIOMAMA before - the On Off clock made for Lexxon in 2006, but lots more products & furniture can be seen at their website.  I really like their pewter bowls & love the orange Re-Imagine chairs they used in their guesthouse. 

 

For their Re-Imagine chair they took salvaged chairs that they found in a pile near their East London studio. The chairs were stripped down to their frames before new seats, backrests & armrests were added, then finished with colourful paint and upholstery.

Photos: by Ben Anders from dwell.com, via emilyescaped.co.uk, studiomama.com, & dezeen.com.

This morning I swapped out the windows from my new set - the shutters on my original house are a deeper & slightly less orangey red than the shutters on the new window + my original frames are a lot whiter, so I swapped out the panes from the new window & put them in my old frame with the original shutters.  I was a bit worried that in trying to get them out I'd crack the plastic or snap off the hinge nobs.  They were difficult to get out, but thankfully there were no breakages & the window is now ready to go back in the house.  One tiny step forward!

Catching up + Obsessions : Franz West Uncle chairs.

I have a pile of Elle Decoration from January this year onwards to catch up on, what with everything that has been going on since January I haven't had time or inclination to peruse them until now.

I got a replacement window in the mail today - my Lundby Dream House has all its shutters, but had a missing window pane, so now all the windows will be complete. 

As I'm getting back into the swing of things I've been thinking about things I'd love to try to make in miniature. One of them being the Uncle chair by Franz West.

 Photo: Christies

Franz West (1947-2012) was an Austrian artist & furniture designer. His Onkel Stuhl (Uncle Stool) were made in the 2000's & are brightly coloured synthetic straps woven over a steel tubular frame (86 x 51 x 55 cm).

With the colours & patterns created with the straps they remind me a lot of African textiles - they're very much like nwentom/kente cloth, a fabric made by the Akan (from West Africa - Ghana, the Ivory Coast & Benin) which is made from brightly coloured interwoven silk or cotton cloth strips.

 

Photos: Artforum magazine cover, October 2009 via Tumblr.

I particularly love how they were used in this kitchen, designed by India Madhavi in this Parisian loft apartment.

 

Photos: by Matthew Salvaing for admagazine.fr

I'm wondering if I could make some from wire with paper or flexible plastic in bright colours for the seats & backs (I'm sure these 2 tutorials would be very helpful - 1 & 2).  Something to think about..